This species is also on the endangered species list. Tennessee coneflower is known from only five natural populations in central Tennessee. (The United States Fish and Wildlife Service must license all nursery sources seeking to sell these plants in interstate commerce.)
The plants grow 2 to 3 feet tall. Flowers are deep pink with pinkish green centers and upturned petals, and leaves are medium to dark green and narrowly lance-shaped. Tennessee coneflower adapts well to cultivation and is easy to start from seed though it's not quite as cold-hardy as other coneflowers and is recommend only as far north as zone 4.
This is the most familiar and widely distributed of all coneflowers, and the one that most gardeners plant. Given rich, amended soil, plants reach a robust 3 to 4 feet in height and produce flowers 4 to 6 inches across. The reddish purple petals are shaded green at the tips, and the center is orange. In most varieties, the petals droop after growing outward from the cone, accounting for the name given to the plants in the Ozarks: droops. The 2- to 3-inch-long leaves are medium green, and toothed or smooth, dep on the variety. With their strong stems, they make an excellent addition to cut-flower arrangements. This coneflower, native to the open woods and prairies of Ohio and Iowa south to Louisiana and Georgia, makes a showy backdrop for low-growing summer annuals or perennials.
Unlike most of the other species, purple coneflower has a more fibrous root system, the reason it is more successfully propagated by division. If grown from seed, E. purpurea often blooms the first year.
This species is found in sunny, well-drained sites from Illinois to Iowa and eastern Kansas and south to Georgia and Louisiana. Its 3- to 6-inch-diameter flowers are notable for their reflexed (drooping) petals. Bloom begins in midsummer and lasts until frost. Plants grow 3 to 3-1/2 feet tall. As with black Sampson coneflower, propagation by root division is rarely successful, so propagate this species by seed after moist stratification.
also called narrow-leaved purple coneflower. Native to the Great Plains from the United States-Canada border west to Montana and Wyoming and south to Texas, this species grows only 10 to 24 inches tall (other species reach 2 to 4 feet). The light purple to rose pink flowers are 2 1/2 to 3 inches in diameter. Its leaves are narrow, and the stems are hairy.
Propagate by seeds sown in fall in a moist, sandy soil mix. Allow to overwinter in a cold frame. According to Neil Diboll of Prairie Nursery, this "moist stratification" procedure yields a significantly higher germination rate (about 90 percent) than seeding in a cold frame in early spring. If you cannot sow seeds in the fall, provide an artificial moist stratification: Mix seed in a 3-to-1 ratio with damp (not dripping wet) peat moss. Place the mixture in an airtight and watertight bag or jar marked with the date and plant name, and place it in the refrigerator at 34° to 38°F for 30 to 60 days.
Root division is possible. However, this species has a taproot, and unless the lower half of the root has buds, the process is less reliable for propagation compared with E. purpurea.
Researchers consider the roots of this species to have the best medicinal properties of all the coneflowers. But the plant's virtue may be its downfall: Collection of wild plants has increased to a degree that threatens their survival.
The first perennial echinacea to fully flower the first year after planting. The compact, 2-foot-tall plant is one of the first echinaceas to flower, often in June, and it continues producing flowers until frost. It makes an excellent border or container plant.
This cultivar is a new introduction from Jellitto Perennial Seeds in 2006. It is noted as having petals that are even more slender and longer than the typical mother species and that are white with a pale pink tinge, giving an impression of hula dancing in the wind. This plant also tends to grow a little larger than the mother species. I saw two specimens at the trial gardens of the Mount Cuba Center in northern Delaware where they are developing and/or testing cultivars of American native plants that are more adapted to the typical residential yard than the wild straight species.
The native range of this species is from Nebraska to Wisconsin & Michigan down to Georgia to Louisiana & Texas. It has narrow parallel-veined toothless leaves about 4 to 10 inches long. Its flowers bear long, narrow, drooping, pale pinkish-purple to white "petals" that are really ray flowers in the Composite or Aster Family. It can be easily grown in a conventional perennial garden, grows fast, and should be divided about every 4 years when getting over-crowded. Its best bloom is from late June to late July with some sporadic bloom into autumn. It is sold by a good number of native plant nurseries as Blue Moon and Prairie Nursery, but I have not seen it sold in conventional nurseries, unlike its big sister, the Purple Coneflower.
Use purple coneflowers at the back of a border or along the sunny edges of woodland areas for many weeks of color. They make excellent cut flowers, and stripped of petals, their prickly centers add textural variety to dried arrangements.
I got these in 2018, all three came back 2019, but in 2020, I only have one of the three. They get all morning to midday sun, shade for the rest of the day, the bed may stay just too moist for them. Shorter than standard coneflowers, they were about 18 inches for me. Update: I dug the remaining plant today and it barely had any roots. I really think it they not like the heavy soil, a lot of clay as it was near the deck and a lot of subsoil was dug up and made the bed poor. (Black and blue salvia and Siberian iris seem to like it just fine though, doing great )
I bought seeds from Park's Seeds back in July and sowed them right away. I ended up with 8 plants. Now in October they are nice 2" x 2" plants with several leaves. I planted them this year, so I'm sure to have blooms next spring on well-established plants. I love coneflowers and had to have these unique colored ones.
I have tried these from seeds I've gotten in seed trades for several years and they never bloom true white. In my research I found that the traders all grew other varieties close by, so cross pollination may be the reason. I will have to buy a plant and then test to see whether it comes true from seed growing in my mixed environment. I think root divisions are my best way of propagating this pretty color. I'm in south Louisiana and all echinaceas do well here and are a mainstay in attracting butterflies to my yard.
I have this very fragrant bubblegum-pink variety. I started it from seeds I got in a trade with another gardener in summer 2016. Here in zone 9 it has performed as a true perennial, returning and blooming well for 2 years now in a pot on my patio. It's multiplied, so I will plant it out in a flower bed this fall. It's the most fragrant I grow and it can be smelled from 4 feet around the plant. I love it and will collect seeds this fall to share in a trade here on garden.org.
I started mine from seeds Feb. 2017. They grew well and bloomed last summer. I collected the seed heads in Dec. for one of the seed swaps here. Those perennial plants returned early this spring and are blooming their hearts out now in June. They are growing in a hot, dry area on the west side of my house and doing beautifully. I want more colors for next year since they are so durable.
First year blooming for me, amazingly huge! Has a pleasant fragrance if you get your nose close to the flower. Very pleased with performance, lasting flowers.
I ordered two Ozark Coneflowers from Prairie Nursery in Wisconsin back about 2005 and planted one in the front yard and one in the backyard. Both receive some full sunshine, but experience some shade also. Both have been doing fine for 12 years as medium sized clumps. The shade probably lessens the amount of yellow blooms some. They bloom a little earlier than the Purple Coneflowers and bloom about a month long. A good number of pollinators also like the flowers. This species has been crossed with the Purple Coneflower to produce a number of cultivars with red, orange, yellow, and other shades of color as the Big Sky series from Atlanta, Georgia and the Meadowbrite series from the Chicago Botanic Garden.
This is a very easy and reliable perennial for sun or part-shade in well-drained soils. Its lovely purple flowers bloom 6 to 8 weeks in July & August. It is easy to divide and reset if ever wanted, but not needed. It does self-sow a good amount. I had one group come up by itself from seed on the east side of the front yard from the group on the west side of the yard about 20 feet away. Goldfinches and some other finches love the seeds. Lots of butterflies, bees, and other pollinators love the flowers. This species does suffer a little from Aster Yellows Disease, which makes some flower heads deform some with bigger greenish noses and fewer petals, but I have not found it deadly. Just cut below the infection. I find it somewhat commonly planted in average yards, but still not as much as Daylilies, Hostas, Bearded Irises, and Peonies. Some are sold by almost any conventional nursery or native plant nursery. Its native range is from Iowa though Ohio to Virginia to Georgia to Louisiana.
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